Second trial pending for 2009 homicide
KINGMAN – A prosecutor is attempting to introduce new evidence in the case of a career criminal from Kingman who awaits a retrial for the brutal murder of a teenager and the attempted murder of her mother on July 4, 2009. Deputy Mohave County Attorney James Schoppmann has informed the Court he intends to call Kara Atkins, 22, as a witness in the retrial of her father Darrell Ketchner.
Ketchner, 62, is serving multiple decades in prison after he was convicted at trial of bursting into the home of his estranged girlfriend Jennifer Allison, 46, stabbing her and shooting her in the head after stabbing her daughter Ariel Allision, 18, to death at their home on Pacific Ave.
The murder conviction was overturned on a technicality while Ketchner continues serving time for attempted first degree murder, misconduct involving weapons and three counts of aggravated assault. Atkins has told authorities that Ketchner made admissions when he used a cell phone to call her from prison in early March.
Atkins told Kingman police detective Dennis Gilbert that she has not communicated with her father for years and that his call to her cell phone caught her by surprise. Gilbert’s police report, a supplement to his original case investigation, said Atkins said her dad wanted her to know what really happened when her half-sister was murdered, and her mom nearly killed.
The report said Ketchner told Atkins that he stabbed Ariel shortly after he entered the home. Atkins said Ketchner told her that he thought Ariel was Cory Weber, Jennifer Allison’s former boyfriend from long ago, when he attacked her.
Atkins said Ketchner indicated that Jennifer Allison stabbed herself before he shot her and fled the residence. Atkins did not testify at Ketchner’s first trial and Schoppmann wants to use her testimony to convict her father in a second trial pending before Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Williams.
Schoppmann’s pretrial motion said Ketchner has been using an illegally possessed cell phone to engage in illegal communication from a state prison in Florence.
“The state learned that the defendant had contacted victims, witnesses and others using a contraband cellphone,” Schoppmann’s motion said. “The cell phone was found hidden in the defendant’s legal paperwork within his prison cell.”
Gilbert said the phone was found on Nov. 19, along with a headphone set, three wrist watches and a syringe. The Arizona Department of Corrections website shows “major” disciplinary infractions on Nov. 25 and 27 for possessing a communications device and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Defense attorney Sandra Carr has not yet responded to Schoppmann’s motion attempting to introduce Atkins as a witness in the case against her father.
Ketchner first went to prison in 1992 for drug offenses committed in 1982. He was admitted again in 1999 for a drug conspiracy conviction from the previous year.
Ketchner’s father Wayne was a prominent Kingman doctor who served as Mohave County Supervisor decades ago.
Dave Hawkins
